A Travelling Soul
by Camiiilllee
Summary: The explosion of the particle accelerator changed her life in more ways than she could possibly imagine. After the accident left her with no memories of her own life, she will need the help of the only friends she has left in Central City to make sense of all that is happening to her.
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Please know that English is not my first language! You're probably going to find errors here and there so I apologise in advance. Feel free to point them out, I'd be happy to correct them!  
Now concerning the story, it takes place somewhere in the beginning of season 1, although I probably won't follow the exact chronology of the show, so don't be surprised if you find something that didn't happen in the show or happened differently. On that note, enjoy!

* * *

 _He always thought death was... quieter._

 _At least, he didn't feel pain anymore. After his burnt lungs and trachea had failed him, his breath had simply stopped, plunging him into a dark, lonely world of nothingness._

 _People say when you die, you see you whole life flashing before your eyes. Well, he had hoped it was true, but all he could think of was how the screams of pain and terror of his loved ones looking for him would haunt him for eternity. That was bullshit. Wasn't he the one supposed to haunt them? Being dead and all?_

 _As he was drifting in and out of consciousness, his eyes had never closed. He was staring at the beautiful storm raging in the dark night sky that the hole in the crumbling ceiling was showing, when a strange and mesmerizing orange wave blurred his vision, pulsing through the sky. He felt like his mind was twirling and being twisted in a million directions._

 _And then, as the beautiful orange cloud left the sky leaving bright yellow lightning bolts in its trail, he died._


	2. Have We Met Before?

**A/N:** And here is the first chapter, I really hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to leave a review if you did!

* * *

She woke up with a deep, slow breath. She blinked a couple times, feeling surprisingly… _good._ She looked around. There was a _window_ , through which she could see tall _buildings_. She was resting on a single bed with white sheets. She knew they were made of _cotton._ She was in what appeared to be a _hospital_. All these words came naturally to her mind, but that is literally all she knew. She couldn't remember anything about herself, how old she was, or even her name.

Before she had time to start panicking, a tall man in a white blouse with brown hair and glasses entered the room. He looked very professional, and yet she felt he was surprised, disturbed even. A couple nurses had entered the room before him and were already bustling around her, aiming dozens of little instruments at her eyes and ears.

"Miss Day!" he said with a wide smile. "How are we feeling?"

"Fine?" she offered, and nearly jumped at her own voice. It was like hearing it for the first time.

"Good, very good" nodded the doctor while scribbling a few words on a large pad. "We are going to take this slow, alright? I'm going to run a few tests and establish your current state."

"I-I'm very confused" she eventually said as one of the nurse finished taking her blood pressure. "Who are you? Actually, my first question would be: who am I?"

The doctor squinted and stopped writing. The nurses quietly left the room.

"I'm Doctor Rhodes, and you are Evgeniya Day." he slowly said. "What exactly do you remember?"

She frowned.

"Evgeniya?" she repeated, perplex.

"Yes" patiently answered the doctor.

"… Are you sure?"

The doctor couldn't hold back a grin.

"Yes, I am sure."

"That's a weird name…" she whispered, causing the doctor to laugh.

"Your parents will be there any second." he mused as he was staring at her. Then he grinned again. "Your mother will be very upset to have missed you waking up."

"My parents?" repeated Evgeniya as a feeling of anxiety mixed with hope went through her stomach. She knew what parents _were_ , but she didn't remember anything about hers. What if she didn't recognize them? Aren't they supposed to be the most important people in her life?

Her door burst open. Before she could even see who entered, she was swallowed in a tight hug. She immediately felt warm tears wet the back of her hospital gown.

"Oh my baby girl, my Eva" moaned a feminine voice in her neck as a soft hand was stroking her head. "I knew you'd come back to us."

The woman finally backed-up, giving Evgeniya some air to breath. The woman was short and frail, with messy red hair pulled up in a pony tail. Her bright green eyes were filled with tears. Next to her was standing a man whose tall size made the woman look even smaller. His hair was almost entirely gray but it still looked like it used to be as dark as his eyes. Both of them looked as if they hadn't slept in months. As soon as the redhead let go of her, he took his turn and hugged her even tighter.

"Hey sunshine" he whispered. "We missed you."

Evgeniya was completely lost. She felt like she had never seen these people before, and yet a warm feeling in her heart had caused her to hug them back.

"Mr. and Mrs. Day," intervened Dr. Rhodes. "I'm going to ask you to be very brave. It appears Evgeniya is suffering from severe amnesia."

The two parents who had taken place on each side of the bed and grabbed her hands stared at their daughter, looking terrified.

"What?" squeaked her mom, her eyes still glued to Evgeniya.

"What's going on?" asked the latter, trying her best not to enter a state of complete panic and hysteria. "What happened to me?"

"You don't remember anything, honey?" softly asked her dad. She shook her head.

"I think it's best if I let you three alone for now," said Rhodes. "I will be back very soon." he lowered his voice, speaking only to the two parents. "Take it slow. It may be a shock for her."

The two adults nodded and he left, softly closing the door behind him. Her mother took a shaky breath and squeezed her hand.

"My name is Selena, and this is your dad, Anton." she quickly wiped away the tears that were going down her cheeks. She had never thought she would be saying those words to her own daughter someday.

"You were in an accident, Eva" continued her dad. "A very serious accident that left you in a coma."

"For how long?" asked Eva, already fearing the answer. Her parents glanced at each other. Selena looked away.

"13 months, honey." eventually whispered her dad.

Eva gasped, removing her hands from her parents' only to cover her mouth. She was in shock. She had been blacked out for more than a _year_. There were too many questions swirling in her mind, leaving her shaking and speechless. She ran a hand through her hair. _Wait. Where is my hair?_ Frowning, she realized she didn't even know what she looked like. Echoing her thoughts, her mother took a little mirror out of her purse and handed it to her.

"Your accident caused you a major head injury. We had to operate, so the doctors shaved your head." softly said her dad. "It has grown back since, don't worry. You've never looked more beautiful." he added, putting a strong hand on her cheek.

She had a weak smile and looked in the mirror. A stranger looked right back at her. She had pink heart-shaped lips, a thin straight nose and high cheek bones. Her hair was blonde –almost red- and indeed very short, although a few strands were falling in her bright blue eyes. She looked away. This girl in the mirror looked so scared…

"What kind of accident? What happened?" she finally found the courage to ask.

"I- I'm not sure we should be talking about that just ye-" started his father.

"Please. I need to know."

He sighed. Her mother was clinging to her hand again and was trying her best to hold her tears back.

"It was a Friday night. You had climbed on top of a building to watch the launch of the particle accelerator in STAR labs."

"The what?"

"It's huh- a machine that Dr. Wells and his team created, that was supposedly going to revolutionise modern science. You were really excited."

She stayed silent, anticipating the rest.

"We're not quite sure what happened up there since you were alone, but the particle accelerator exploded, creating a… some sort of wave of unknown energy. It quickly got to where you were standing."

Anton took a deep breath, squeezing her hand.

"The blast pushed you off the roof. You fell down a six-story building."

Eva stared at him with wide eyes.

"How- how could I survive this? How can I be awake right now?" she asked with a shaky voice.

"You are our own little miracle" whispered her mom, kissing her on the forehead. "But you can't think about that anymore. You have to focus on getting better, alright? You look awfully skinny my dear." she added with a laugh, hiding her tears.

 **...**

Dr. Rhodes spent the rest of the day making her go through all kind of tests and check-ups. He had endless discussions with his colleagues, scratched his head a lot, but at the end of the day he had to face the facts. Except for her amnesia, Evgeniya was fine. Completely fine.

"I've never seen anything like that before" he had told her and her parents, back in her room. "I know your amnesia sounds very scary right now Evgeniya, but consider yourself lucky. Given the state you were in only a few hours ago, you could have been facing severe brain damage. However, I really don't see any reason to keep you here anymore. You can go home with your parents" he added with a smile.

 _Home,_ repeated Eva in her head. She didn't even know where she lived.

She had to leave the hospital in a wheel chair, her muscles still weak from her coma. But then again, she was still a lot stronger than expected for someone who hadn't moved at all for more than a year.

 **...**

The next couple days were… weird. It was like living somebody else's life. She had spent the first night at her parents', before they brought her to her own apartment the next day. They explained that they used to have a house in Central City but it burnt down the night the particle accelerator exploded, with everything in it. That's why they didn't have a lot of pictures or belongings of her past they could show her. However, they told her as much as they could about her. She was a 25 year old biologist, specialised in micro-organisms. Before specialising in this field, she had gone through med school and had spent a lot of time abroad, learning new languages and perfecting her knowledge in Biology in general. Her mom Selena was the owner of a little library down-town, and her father Anton was a warder in Iron Heights. He was born in Russia and was the one who had offered to call their daughter Evgeniya after his mother. But everyone called her Eva, even her friends.

"Friends?" had asked Eva, her eyes suddenly sparkling.

"To be honest honey," answered her mom, "you've always been so involved in your work that you never took time to make a lot of friends." She immediately saw the pain on her daughter's face. "But you've had visitors during the past year" she quickly added with a wink.

"Really? Who? Do they know I'm ali- awake?"

"There was this gorgeous young lady, Iris I think? I believe you met her at Jitters a couple years back. She often visited you. However her visits became a little scarcer a few months ago, I wonder why…" she said, pensive.

"I should drop by and say hi" whispered Eva, moved by the idea that someone took the time to come and see her regularly for more than a year.

They talked a little more, Eva always eager to learn more about herself. She was happy to see that talking to her parents was already starting to feel natural. That was at least one thing in her life she could rely on. But she couldn't get Iris out of her mind. Something about her sounded strangely familiar, so as the sun was setting, she told her parents she was going to catch her before the end of her shift, hoping that she was still working at Jitters. Her parents gave her the address and anxiously let her go.

"I'm amnesiac guys, not stupid. I can still find my way around a city." she told her parents with a smile before kissing them both on the cheek.

 **...**

She quickly got the coffee place, which was actually not very far from her apartment. She took a deep breath, suddenly anxious, and pushed the door before she had the chance to change her mind.

The place was still crowded, even though it was almost dark outside. For some reason, she felt reassured by the soft and constant jabber. She noticed a pretty young lady with long dark hair that was wearing the café's uniform and casually talking with a customer at the bar. She made her way to her.

"Hi" she said out loud, trying to cover the noise. "I'm looking for Iris West, do you know if she still works here?"

The young woman, who was just about to give her customer a cup of coffee, opened her mouth and dropped her cup, spilling coffee everywhere. Before Eva could apologise for startling her, the woman ran around the bar and hugged her, almost causing Eva to fall down.

"Eva!" shouted Iris, tears filling her beautiful black eyes. "I didn't know you were awake! When did this happen? I came to see you last weekend and you were still…" she didn't end her sentence.

Eva was trying hard not to cry as well. She didn't remember Iris but her affection triggered something familiar inside her heart. She felt like she and Iris used to be very good friends.

"I know, things have been a little crazy in the past couple days" she said with a sad laugh.

She was going to explain the whole situation when the customer Iris was talking to stood up.

"Is everything ok?" he asked, awkwardly standing between the two girls.

"Oh, sorry" mumbled Iris with a confused smile. "Barry, this is Evgeniya, a very good friend of mine. Eva, meet Barry."

Eva looked at the young man, feeling bad for interrupting whatever the two of them were doing. He was tall and thin, though she could tell he was muscular by the way he moved with such ease. His blue eyes were sparkling, but what hit Eva the most was how bright and franc his wide smile was.

"I think we've met a couple times before" he said, unaware of Eva's embarrassing thoughts. "You look different though. I have to say, you're rocking the short hair look." he added with an even wider smile, if that was even possible.

Eva ignored the fire she felt rising in her cheeks and cleared her throat.

"Thank you, but actually I don't remember meeting you. Any of you." she said, her pretty smile leaving her lips.

"What are you talking about?" said Iris, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"I woke up a couple days ago with absolutely no memories. I forgot everything that happened before my accident."

A silence fell upon the trio.

"I'm so sorry" whispered Iris, squeezing her shoulder. "What can I do to help?"

"Actually, that's why I came here. I was hoping you could tell me a little more about… well, me? And maybe help me catch up on what I've missed the past year. But no spoilers on any TV show!" she added, causing Barry to laugh.

"Of course" answered Iris, inviting her to sit next to the young man and going back behind the bar.

 **...**

The three of them spent the rest of the night talking, kidding around and laughing until they were the only ones left in the café.

"I never asked you Barry" said Eva after finishing her last cup of latte. "How did we meet exactly?"

"I'm a forensic at CCPD. You helped me on a couple cases in the past. You are an incredible biologist, Eva. Whenever I was stuck or in a dead end, I knew I could call you for help. You were my own superhero" he added with a wink, which caused Eva to blush.

"Well" she sighed, "maybe I used to be. I don't know what I'm going to do with my life now."

Seeing the distress in the beautiful woman's eyes, he gently put a hand on her shoulder.

"All this knowledge, all those skills, they're still in here somewhere. It's only been a couple days, give yourself some time. I'm sure it'll all come back."

Grateful for making her feel better, she smiled back at him and this time she could swear she saw a little redness appear in his cheeks before he removed his hand as if he had just been burned.

"I'd better get going. My parent are treating me like I'm 12 again, and I don't want to worry them." Eva sighed. She didn't want to leave the two youngsters. During the few hours they had spent together, they had made her feel like everything was back to normal again.

"Call me if you need anything" said Iris with a warm smile. "Anything at all."

"Same goes for me," added Barry who was putting on his hoodie. He had given her his number earlier. "I'm pretty fast at answering calls" he said with a sly smile. Neither Eva nor Iris seemed to understand what he meant, but he seemed proud of himself, so they didn't say a thing and smiled at each other at Barry's goofiness.

 **...**

After hugging them goodbye, Eva stayed in front of the coffee shop a couple minutes, enjoying the cool air and the silent street. She was about to head back home when she felt an unusual shiver go down her spine. She felt like someone… no, _something_ was staring at her. She could almost feel breathing on her neck. Completely freaked out, she ran back to her apartment, locking her door behind her with a sigh. Barry was right, she had to take it easy. All this thinking was making her paranoid.


	3. A Look Inside

**A/N:** I've decided to make longer chapters for now, that way it's easier for the story to develop. Tell me what you think!

* * *

It had been almost a week since Eva had woken up. She was slowly accommodating to living alone again. It was really hard at first, even though her parents came by twice a day to check on her and sometimes have lunch with her. But at night, as soon as she fell asleep, she had horrible nightmares that made her wake up screaming and soaked in sweat. And as soon as she opened her eyes, she could never remember anything about these nightmares, except for a strange and eery silhouette that was following her around and from which she was always trying to get away. She hadn't talked about these nightmares to her parents; they were already worried enough about her without piling on it.

She was in the shower when it happened for the very first time. The sun was barely rising, and she had just woken up from one of these horrifying dreams. She had her head up, eyes shut, letting the warm and strong stream massage her face and the steam relax her tense muscles. She was just starting to calm down when she felt it again. That… _thing_ she had felt in the street a few days ago after leaving Jitters. She quickly turned off the tap and froze, her heart beating out of her chest. It was that same uncomfortable feeling that someone was watching her. And then it _spoke_ to her. Not exactly with words, but through a flow of thoughts and emotions that weren't hers. It was a confused and swirling mixture of pain and happiness and relief and sorrow and it just wouldn't stop and _Oh my God stop- please make it stop!_ Scared out of her mind, Eva let out a scream of terror and fell out of her shower, ripping off the curtain and hitting her head on the sink with a muffled sound in the process.

Groaning from the pain, she wrapped herself in a towel and put a hand to her forehead, which came back bloody. The unknown source of thoughts had stopped the moment she hit her head. Shaking and hurt, she brought her knees to her chin and let warm tears dripping down her bright blue eyes for the first time since she had woken up. She kept crying until she lost track of time, letting go of her fear through her silent sobs.

 **...**

The sun was shining high and bright in the beautiful blue sky, as if it was mocking Eva's depressing mood. She had decided to go for a walk in Central City gardens to clear her mind. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking after her terrifying experience in the morning and she couldn't stay alone in her apartment a minute longer. She needed to be surrounded by people. She put on a short burgundy dress that underlined her strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. She was slightly cheered up when she noticed that she liked most of the clothes she had found in her wardrobe. At least her tastes didn't seem to have changed too much. Before going out, she had also covered up her cut with a large bandage. It was a little sketchy but she didn't feel like calling her parents or waiting for hours in the ER just to get patched up, and probably yelled at for not being more careful after waking up from a year long coma. Which, granted, would have been justified.

The square was absolutely gorgeous. The large patches of grass were bordered by beautiful and fragrant flowers and led to a blue lake in a downward slope. She immediately felt the fresh air fill her lungs and relax her.

She was slowly strolling on a narrow dirt track, taking deep breaths and enjoying the smell of freshly cut grass, when a man in front of her caught her attention. He was bending over, leaning on a tree. He seemed to be shaking and in pain. A strange alarm went up in the back of her head, but the need to help others overcame it and she made her way to the man.

"Sir, are you alright? Do you want me to call for help?" she gently asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

The man didn't answer. Instead, he fell to his knees with what sounded like a scream of pain. Eva stumbled back in horror as the man's skin was pierced by countless spikes that seemed to be coming right from his bones.

 _How…?!_ Thought Eva, too stunned and fascinated to move. But she should have. As the man's screams became louder and louder, he raised his arms to the sky and dozens of 3 feet long spikes were ejected from his body. Eva raised a hand in front of her –pointless attempt to protect herself- certain to end up like she should have a year ago. _Dead_.

And then everything happened too fast for her to even realise it.

A yellow streak appeared in a gust of wind. As she felt two arms behind her back and legs picking her up, the same _thing_ that talked to her this morning sent her another warning sign. Then for a split second she felt like she was _flying_ through Central City's streets at an unimaginable speed and before she had time to be scared, that thing in her mind surrounded her with a warm cloak of energy.

And she was thrown to the ground.

The violence of the fall made her roll a couple times on the hard pavement before she finally came to a stop, gasping in pain.

"What the hell?!" groaned a voice next to her. She looked over to her right to see a man entirely dressed in red and wearing a mask, laying on the ground and sounding very upset.

"I don't _know_ what happened!" he yelled, apparently responding to someone, a hand on his ear. "It's like I hit a wall or something."

He got back on his feet and came closer to Eva, helping her up. She grimaced as she could already feel bruises all over her body. But it was still better than a giant spike going through her stomach.

"Are you ok? I'm so sorry about that, that wasn't supposed to happen…"

His voice sounded like it was being artificially modified so it wouldn't be recognised. But the second he put his gloved hand on her arm, that presence in her mind sent her a word, very clearly this time.

 _Barry._

"Barry?" she repeated, completely overwhelmed by the situation.

The strange man in red's face was blurry, moving so fast that she couldn't tell what he looked like. But she could clearly tell he was stunned. Without a word, he turned around and left so fast that the blast almost made Eva fall back down. She stood there frozen for a whole minute, trying to make at least a little sense of the inexplicable things that just happened in a matter of seconds, maybe even less. She raised her eyes only to realise she was standing in her street, right in front of her apartment.

"What? Just- what?" she whispered, completely lost. It was at least a 20 minute walk between her place and the square.

She ran back in her apartment –well, walked as fast as she could since both her knees were scratched and her whole body was aching- and turned her TV on. It was the first time she'd done so after awakening, taking her parents' advice. She already had so much to take in, she didn't want to pile on with the depressing news that were broadcasting every day. But now, she was deeply regretting not doing so. A lady with a perfect brushing and bright red lips appeared on the screen and she religiously listened, eager to finally have answers.

" _A wave of panic hit the Central City gardens only a few minutes ago, as an unknown metahuman unleashed his powers in the middle of the square. As you can see on these amateur videos, it didn't take long for The Flash to intervene, preventing this attack from turning into a massacre and once again saving many lives."_

As the lady kept going, Eva stared at the shaky video apparently taken from a phone, in which she saw herself, standing there like an idiot, and disappearing in a red blur just as the white spikes were about to hit her. She slowly sat down and tried to even her breathing. What was wrong with these people? How was this even possible? And that… _thing_ in her mind, it told her that this Flash guy was Barry?

Following her fuzzy train of thoughts, she picked up her phone. " _We need to talk._ " she texted Barry. Then she dialled her parents and as soon as her mom picked up, she burst out in anger.

"How could you _not_ tell me this?! A bunch of freaks are running around in Central City attacking people and you didn't think to mention it?"

"Eva honey, calm down. We are trying to protect you, there are so many things that have changed in the past year, we're trying really hard not to overwhelm you with the news. And we honestly didn't think you'd go out on your own so often." she paused, and Eva heard her gasp. "Wait, did something happen to you?"

"I'm fine, mom, don't worry about it." sighed Eva. And as her mother was still asking her millions of questions to make sure she was ok, Eva cut her off and hang up. It was a jerk move but she was still furious at her.

As she expected, Barry didn't answer her text. She sighed, grabbed her purse and left her apartment again, without even taking the time to clean up. She wasn't scared anymore. She was pissed.

 **...**

She easily found the Central City Police Department. It was an imposing building with cream walls and dozens of people buzzing in and out. After climbing the large stairs and getting inside, she was making her way to the front desk when someone called her name.

"Eva? Is that you?"

She turned to see a dark-skinned man with a short beard and soft black eyes go down wooden stairs and head towards her, a bunch of files in his hands. She hesitantly smiled. Of course, she didn't recognise him.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?"

"Oh I'm Iris' dad, Joe. Joe West? She told me about your huh- your condition."

"Right! Sorry. Nice to meet you, Detective" she added with a smile, noticing his badge. "Well, to meet you again."

"Please, you've always called me Joe" he said with a warm smile. "It's good to see you up and about! Iris and I were just about to invite you for din- " he stopped talking, noticing her scratched knees, dirty dress and bloody bandage on her head.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he put a hand on her shoulder.

Eva realized how crazy she probably looked. She tried to smooth her messy hair and smiled.

"I just had a little… incident. Nothing important" she added with a wave of her hand, hoping that Joe wasn't on the team that responded to the alert in the square and that he wouldn't put two and two together. "I'm looking for Barry, do you know where I can find him?"

Joe's eyes narrowed –he wasn't a detective for nothing, he could tell when someone was lying to him, especially when they were such bad liars- but he didn't insist.

"He was headed to star labs last time I saw him."

"Thank you. I'll see you around, Joe." she said with a smile, trying to hide how nervous she was.

"Hey Eva" shouted Joe as she was hurrying back outside. She held her breath as he seemed to hesitate. "Take care of yourself, ok?" he finally said.

She discreetly sighed, nodded and left the building.

 **...**

Finding Star labs was a bit more complicated. She asked for the address on her way to a couple people but they all seem to have either forgotten about this place, or didn't want to acknowledge its existence. _What the hell happened here?_ Eva asked herself as she decided to look up the address on her phone. She was at the facilities a few minutes later. The large circular building with two tall towers was bigger than she thought. Unlike CCPD, it looked almost abandoned. She didn't meet anyone on her way in the lobby. The place was strangely calm. She could hear her steps echoing through the long hallways as she hesitantly went down to what appeared to be the laboratories. She finally arrived in a large white room, filled with computers and equipment which she wouldn't even know how to describe. Four people were standing there, staring at her. Well, three of them were standing. The fourth one was in a wheel chair. Barry was one of them, his arms crossed on his chest, looking worried. The man in the wheel chair peered at Eva through his round glasses and came closer to her.

"Miss Day" he finally said, breaking the awkward silence. "We were expecting you."

"… You were? And who are you, exactly?" answered Eva, whose anger had dissipated, making way for surprise and forgetting everything she wanted to ask them.

"Yes. We've heard a lot about you. My name is Harrison Wells and this is my team: Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon. I believe you already know Mr. Allen."

She frowned but didn't say anything, and neither did Barry. She thought he was going to ask her about her previous encounter with the Flash, but instead Wells asked her a question that completely destabilised her.

"How did your accident happen, Miss Day?"

She opened her mouth, not really sure how to answer.

"How do you know-...?" she whispered, only to see Barry look down, a glimpse of shame in his eyes. She sighed. There was really no point in hiding what happened to her, but she thought her friend would have the courtesy not to tell half the city about it.

"I'm- I don't really know actually. I forgot everything that happened during and before the accident, but my parents told me I fell off a building."

"Do you know when it happened?"

"It was the night your particle accelerator exploded. It pushed me off the edge." she answered with a shaky voice, just now realising that this man was probably responsible for everything that was happening to her.

Wells nodded with an all-knowing smile and didn't add anything. The short young man that had been slowly walking around Eva for the past few seconds, eyes narrowed, suddenly threw a magazine he was holding at her.

"Ow!" she squeaked as it hit her in the face. "What was that for?"

"Cisco!" yelled the pretty woman named Caitlin. "What are you doing?"

"Sorry" mumbled Cisco, running a hand in his long dark hair and picking up the projectile. "I was hoping we had found our own Jason Bourne, but no freaky reflexes. My bad."

He awkwardly smiled at her, cleared his throat and went back next to Barry, mumbling a last "sorry". The latter was pinching the top of his nose, looking desperate.

"How did you know it was me?" he softly asked Eva.

Okay. So he wasn't denying anything. Which actually freaked Eva out even more. She had hoped to be wrong about him.

"So it's ok to talk about this? You guys are all cool with the fact that there are some kind of... mutants running the streets? And that Barry is one of them?" she questioned, pointing at the others.

"Metahumans." corrected Cisco.

"What?"

"We call them metahumans. And Barry is not one of them. Unlike most these guys out there, Barry chose to use his powers –which, by the way, are pretty awesome if you haven't noticed- to protect the city."

Eva and Barry's glances met.

"Right." she whispered. "The Flash." she took a deep breath. "So why exactly are you telling me all this? With the mask and everything, I gathered this is supposed to be a secret."

"Exactly." stated Wells. "Which brings us back to Mr Allen's first question. How did you know it was him?"

Eva was starting to understand why it had been so easy for her to get into the premises. If she hadn't come to them first, they probably would have come to her, looking for answers. She had just stepped into a complex and dangerous organisation and was way over her head. She decided they absolutely couldn't know about the weird stuff that was happening to her, not until she knew if these people were friendly or not. She trusted Barry, but she wasn't so sure about that Wells character. This strange alarm in her head had rung again as soon as she had laid eyes on him.

"A feeling." she slowly said. "Maybe it was the way you were standing, or talking, I don't know. To be honest, I wasn't sure until now."

Wells constant smirk widened. Yep, this man definitely made her uncomfortable. And he clearly didn't believe her.

"If that's ok with you, we would like to run a couple tests on you." he glanced at her wounds. "Besides, it looks like you could actually use some medical attention."

"Tests? What kind of tests?" she asked, taking a step back.

"Just a regular check-up" said Caitlin, gently putting a hand on her arm. "And- maybe take a few DNA and blood samples" she quickly added under her breath. She caught Eva's alarmed look and nervously smiled back. "Don't worry, I'm a doctor."

Barry joined the two girls.

"You can trust these people Eva, I promise. I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, you know that."

"Oh you mean besides throwing me on the ground in front of my apartment?" countered Eva, raising an eyebrow.

"Say what?" said Cisco, slowly turning on his swivel chair towards them.

"I- like I said, that wasn't supposed to happen" stuttered Barry, running a hand through his hair.

"Actually, this is one the reasons we're doing these tests" added Caitlin, already leading Eva to the med bay. "We need to know what happened."

"Wait, you think I'm one of these freaks?" asked Eva, concerned.

"Who are you calling a freak?" replied Barry with a sly look on his face.

"Sorry, no offense. It's just... it's all really new to me. I'm going to need some time to process it all."

"You'll see," Cisco butted in, "once you dive in the meta-madness, you'll realise it's the coolest thing in the world. Except- you know, when crazy metahuman criminals come after us and try to kill us in all kinds of creative and disgusting ways." he added in one breath.

Caitlin, who was carefully patching up Eva's scratches, rolled her eyes.

"I would usually advise you _not_ to listen to him, but he's got a point. Barry told us you were a biologist; well as a fellow scientist, I can promise you the endless discoveries about the human body we make here are something to be looking forward to." Her beautiful brown eyes were sparkling with excitement as she talked.

"Um okay, that all sounds very cool guys" said Eva, "but I wasn't exactly planning on sticking around."

"Oh yes." said Dr. Wells wheeling in the med bay, causing Eva to jump. How can a man in a wheel chair be so silent? And creepy? "We may have forgotten to mention: we'd like for you to stay. Work here with us."

"Work?" questioned Eva, raising an eyebrow. "Thank you for the opportunity, Dr. Wells, but right now I'm pretty much useless, unless you want me to scrub your toilets for a living. In which case with all due respect, I decline your offer."

Dr. Wells ignored the others' chuckles and gave her his weird smirk again.

"That's too bad. You see, I needed your thoughts on what organism would be more appropriate to apply PCR on metahuman DNA. Oh well."

"Well for starters," mumbled Eva without thinking about it, readjusting the bandage Caitlin had just put on her knee, "you would need to find the appropriate temperatures the molecule could handle during the PCR, assuming that your particle thingy heavily modified the DNA's very structure. Only then you can start looking for the right micro-organism to use."

Dr. Wells' smile widened. The others were looking at Eva, their mouths shaped in a perfectly round 'o'.

"What?" she asked, looking back at them. When what she just said finally hit her, she put a hand over her mouth, completely stunned.

"Like riding a bike." smiled Dr. Wells. "It's settled then. I'll see you tomorrow at eight. Don't be late."

Before Eva could say anything, he casually left the room.

"I told you it would come back," finally said Barry, shoving her shoulder with a huge smile. Eva smiled back, unsure of what just happened but filled with a new hope that she might get her old life back some day.

"Welcome to the team, Miss Day" solemnly said Cisco, mimicking Wells' voice. "And enjoy your daily dose of ass-kicking and awesomeness." he added with his own.

Eva smiled back, enjoying the young man's energy and positivity. She thought she saw a little redness appear on his dark cheeks before he turned, going back to his computer. Then she sighed, suddenly feeling exhausted.

"He just wants to keep an eye on me, doesn't he?"

Everyone looked embarrassed as a heavy silence fell upon the room.

"What happened earlier," softly said Caitlin. "When Barry was carrying you and his speed suddenly… stopped. It wasn't harmless. There could be more to it. Plus, you happened to survive a deadly fall the very night the particle accelerator exploded, and you woke up from a long coma just like Barry did. It can't be a coincidence."

"Yeah," sighed Eva. "I don't believe in coincidence."

"Has anything… _weird_ happened to you lately?" asked Barry, coming closer to her, a hand on his chin.

Eva took a small breath, unsure if she should talk to them about what happened the very morning. These strange thoughts she had heard seemed to be coming from the outside, not from her, so she couldn't be a case of a new meta-human… right? To her, it just looked like she was slowly going crazy. She decided to stay on her first decision not to talk about it for now, and dodged the question.

"I just woke up from a yearlong coma with no memories at all, pretty much everything I've seen in the past week seemed weird to me." she said with a nervous laugh. He let out a quick laugh as well.

"Yeah trust me, I know what it's like. Don't worry, you'll find your own 'normal' eventually. It's just going to take some time, but we'll be here to help you find it." he added, slowly patting her on the back in an attempt to comfort her. Cisco raised an eyebrow and loudly cleared his throat. Eva quickly ran a hand through her short hair, got up and straightened her dress, ignoring the burning feeling in her cheeks. Caitlin was done with her tests, so she started to snoop around the lab.

"So for how long have you been doing… _this_ , exactly?" she asked, motioning to the room around her.

"About four months." answered Caitlin. "We pretty much started after Barry woke up. We're still not exactly running like a well-oiled machine but we're getting there."

"It's pretty quiet," continued Eva. "Doesn't seem like your days get too bus-"

"NO!" screamed the three partners in unison, cutting her off. Just as they did, a loud alarm went off on one the biggest screen in the room.

"Ugh! You never say it's not a busy day in this room. _Never._ " groaned Cisco, rolling his chair towards the desk where the screen was flashing in red. "It's bad mojo."

"My bad" mumbled Eva, biting her lip and watching the three youngsters transform into crime-fighters in a matter of seconds, their faces turning into focused and serious masks. _Bad ass,_ she thought as adrenaline started running in her veins.

"There's an ongoing armed robbery at Central City Bank." said Caitlin, staring at her screen. She paused. "That's weird." she whispered, as Barry had appeared in a… well, a flash, dressed in his red suit.

"What?" he asked, putting a hand on Caitlin's chair.

"The number of attackers keeps changing."

"Metahuman?"

"Most likely." answered Cisco. "But I'm not sure what we're dealing with here."

"I'm going in." said Barry, nodding.

"Be careful." whispered Eva, watching the not very reassuring scene play out in front of her.

Barry nodded again with a smile and disappeared in a gust of wind, sending every piece of paper flying in the air.

"Don't bother, rookie" said Cisco from his computer. "He's never careful."

Eva let out an anxious sigh and came closer to Caitlin. They had an open mic system, Barry could hear everything they were saying and vice-versa.

"Well?" eagerly asked Cisco as they could see on the GPS that Barry had arrived at the bank. "How's it looking in there?"

They heard a commotion, and Barry finally spoke out, sounding out of breath.

"Definitely a metahuman."

" _A_ metahuman?" asked Caitlin, looking at the numbers she was directly getting from the CCPD.

"He seems to have the ability to clone himself" said Barry after groaning in pain, apparently receiving a bad punch. "There- there's too many of them- of him. He's too strong!"

"Get out of here Barry!" yelled Eva, looking on the screen at Barry's vitals that were quickly dropping.

"I second that" said Cisco, just as worried. "Get the hell out man."

They heard some glass breaking and they sighed in relief when they finally saw the red dot on the GPS head back to Star Labs. A couple seconds later, he was back in the room. Eva was already walking to him, a half "happy to see you alive" half "y'all crazy for doing this" look on her face, when she noticed Barry's was covered in blood. She ran to him just in time to break his fall as he was already crumbling to the ground. She put his arm around her shoulders and Cisco got to them to support the other side. They quickly dragged him to the bed in the med bay, Caitlin not far behind.

"Barry?" called Eva, softly shaking his shoulders after carefully removing his mask. "Barry wake up. You alright?"

She started cleaning up the cuts on his lips and forehead as he was slowly coming to, groaning in pain. Apparently her years spent in med school had left some good reflexes. Caitlin watched her give him expert and precise care, pleasantly surprised by her experience.

"Barry, what happened in there?" questioned Cisco.

"I got my ass handed to me." he mumbled, causing the others to chuckle. All except for Caitlin, who was deep in her thoughts.

"Your vitals were dropping fast" she mused, "just like when you were experiencing low blood sugar, remember?"

"Yeah, except I'm not anymore. We solved that problem, didn't we?" he sat up and let his legs hang on the side of the bed, slowly rubbing his torso with a grimace of pain. His injuries were already healing but he had taken a pretty bad beating and was covered in bruises.

"It must be coming from something else." mumbled Caitlin, dozens of hypothesis already swirling in her brilliant mind.

"It's me, isn't it?" sighed Eva, putting a hand to her forehead. "Whatever happened this morning, it did something to you."

They all looked at each other, unsure what to say or think.

"You got blood on my suit" moaned Cisco, breaking the silence.

"I think _some_ of it belongs to him" replied Barry, miffed. He sighed, looking back at Eva who was biting her nails, very conscious that she may very well be the reason why her friend almost got killed.

"Let's not draw any conclusions until we get the test results back ok? And even if you did do something this morning, you obviously didn't mean to. This isn't your fault."

Eva didn't answer, knowing she would feel guilty no matter what Barry said.

"Get some rest." she eventually whispered, grabbing her denim jacket and heading towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" asked Cisco, his arms outspread.

"I need to clear my head. I'll see you guys tomorrow." she added with a quick smile, as the rest of the team watched her leave.

Lost in her thoughts, she failed to notice the quiet silhouette watching her leave the building in a hurry. When sure to be out of sight, Dr. Wells wheeled out of the dark corner is was hiding in. This girl was probably going to cause him a lot of unnecessary trouble.

But not for long.

* * *

 **A/N:** And that's it for chapter 2, I hope you enjoyed! I will try to include more scenes from the show in the future. Til next time!


	4. An Old Friend

**A/N:** We're back with a new chapter! We get to look a little deeper into Eva's past and her relationship with the rest of the team. Hopefully the picture I chose for this story will start to make a little more sense now ;) Enjoy!

* * *

3:58

3:59

4:00

Eva moaned, rubbing her face as she witnessed the excruciating sluggishness of time going by. She was sprawled out on her bed, staring at the geometric shapes the weak city light seeping through her window was drawing on her ceiling. Today was her first day at Star Labs, and she couldn't find peace of mind. Caitlin said her test results would come back today, and she didn't know what outcome scared her the most. If she turned out to be a "regular" human, it would mean everything weird happening to her was a figment of her imagination and she was basically going crazy. If they found out she was a metahuman on the other hand… then what? Would they help her figure out what was going on with her? Would she be considered a threat? Maybe not to Barry, Cisco and Caitlin but to Dr. Wells… this man was giving her the creeps and she did _not_ look forward to working with him.

Admitting that all hopes of getting even a little bit of sleep were pointless, she sighed and got up, putting on tight black jeans and an over-sized grey sweater that let her left shoulder show. Without thinking about it, she tried to grab her hair to pull it in a ponytail but she missed it by a few inches. She softly smiled, amused at the idea that her unconscious still remembered she used to have longer hair. Her blonde-reddish strands had now grown into a pixie cut, JLaw style, and she actually really liked it. Plus, it saved her a fair amount of time in the morning or getting out of the shower.

Eva decided to take a walk outside to enjoy the calm of the sleeping city. She had hesitated a few minutes, considering what happened to her the last time she went for a walk alone, but she couldn't let fear keep her cloistered in her apartment. Plus, Central City was vast enough for her not to run into every single metahuman or criminal living there, right? Reassured by that thought, she grabbed her phone and her keys and left her place. What she refused to admit to herself is that this presence in her mind was being more and more omnipresent, although not in an oppressive way. It was as if a part of her was slowly waking up. Still, it was a disturbing feeling and that constant impression of being observed was making her claustrophobic, hence her recent need to spend more time outside these walls.

She tried to focus on the muffled sound her white sneakers were making each step she took on the concrete. She was almost meditating, letting her instinct guide her through the city. But then again, she wondered if was really her choosing where to go, or that entity in her mind subtly showing her the way to go. Either way, she quickly lost track of time and ended up in a residential area. The avenue was neat, with carefully cut grass and white fences in front of each identical cream pavilion. All the lace curtains were closed and the only sound Eva could hear was a bark echoing throughout the neighbourhood. Feeling oddly nostalgic, she took a few more steps before coming to a stop in front of a house. Well, what used to be house and was now a massive pile of ash and burned wood. She silently opened the miraculously intact fence covered in soot, trying to spot something familiar. There had to be a reason why she was here. A movement on a right caught her attention. She took a couple cautious steps closer to the house and crouched. It was a little wooden box carved with delicate golden arabesques. It looked like it had been dragged here, leaving a white trail in the ash. Frowning, Eva softly blew on the fragile object to remove the excess of dirt and opened it. A lullaby started to play as a beautiful red and yellow bird spurted out of the velvet bottom of the box and slowly span. To Eva's surprise, warm tears started glistening down her cheeks. She closed the box, putting an end to the beautiful melody, and held it close to her heart, inexplicably shaken.

"It's a damn shame." said a voice behind her. Eva let out a gasp and jumped to her feet. An old man was standing behind the fence, clinging to a leash as his bulldog was obliviously walking and sniffing around in the ash.

"What?" squeaked Eva, still trying to recover form her fright and wiping her tears with the back of her hand.

"What happened to your family. Good people like you don't deserve this kind of tragedy." he tried to articulate. He seemed to be missing most of his teeth.

"What do you mean?" questioned Eva, walking closer to him.

"The fire, everything" he spat, motioning towards the house. "I hope they catch the bastard who did this. This kind of monster doesn't deserve to walk this earth."

"This- this wasn't an accident?" stuttered Eva, her throat too tight to speak clearly. The old man's grey eyes narrowed.

"You _are_ the little Evgeniya, aren't you? You used to live here with your family?"

"Um y- yes that's me, I just-" she mumbled, confused. She hadn't realised this was the house her parents had talked about. She stood there, stunned by what she had just learned. Who would want to burn her parents' house? Were they trying to _kill_ them?

"Well," said the old man, clearing his throat as the young woman was gazing, looking extremely pale, "take care of yourself, kid. And don't beat yourself over it. There's nothing you could have done." On this note, he turned around and slowly walked away. "Poor kid." he mumbled, shaking his head.

Eva's gaze fell upon the little box she was still holding in her hands. Right under the lock were engraved two letters. _E.D_.

"My initials," she whispered, "this must belong to me..."

She held on to the box, aimlessly walked around the ashes for a few more minutes and left. Taking her phone out, she realised it was almost six and she had been walking for almost two hours. She took a cab but instead of going home, she gave the driver her parent's address. When she knocked on the door, it took a couple minutes for her dad to come answer it. His hair was still messy from the night and he was wearing a bathrobe. He immediately saw the distress in her daughter's eyes. She looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Eva, honey it's six in the morning, is everything ok?"

"No," she simply whispered back. Anton pulled her into a tight hug and stroked her hair. Without a word, he lead her inside the apartment and sat her down at the kitchen table. As he was giving her a steaming cup of black coffee, Selena came out of her room, her red hair looking like a mane and her green eyes filled with concern. She put a hand on Eva's cheek.

"What's going on?"

Eva didn't answer. Instead, she put the little box she had found on the table. The second she laid eyes on it, Selena brought a trembling hand to her mouth and burst into tears. Looking extremely disturbed as well, Anton stared at the object as though he had seen a ghost and put a protective arm around his wife's shoulders that were shaking with sobs.

"Where did you find this?" he asked with a morbid voice. Eva was looking at them with wide eyes. She didn't expect their reaction to be this intense.

"At your- our old house. Why didn't you tell me the fire was a criminal act?"

"We were trying to protect yo-"

"Will you cut this shit!" she cut him off, suddenly getting up, almost knocking over her chair. "I'm not just some stranger you were told to protect, I'm your daughter god damn it! You're supposed to tell me the truth, and I'm supposed to be able to trust you!"

"Watch your tone." rumbled his dad, raising his voice as well. "What we're supposed to do is keep you safe and do what's best for you. Believe me when I say that right now, what's best for you is not to twist the knife in the wound. This night was a traumatic night for us, with the fire and your accident-".

"Wait," she cut him off again, "are you saying my accident and the fire happened the same night?"

Anton closed his eyes, very conscious of what he just said.

"You shouldn't have gone there" screamed her mom, almost hysterical. "Don't you dare ever go back there again!"

Eva stood there in shock. She didn't have her memories back, but she was certain she had never seen her mother like that. Fighting the urge to cry from the pain and frustration, she grabbed the box and left, slamming the door behind her.

"Evgeniya!" called her dad, but she was already gone. The two parents looked at each other, looking desperate, Selena's face soaked with tears.

"She's going to find out eventually." breathed out Anton.

"She can't" moaned Selena in response. "It would kill her. She can't know."

 **...**

Eva was too upset to cry. She couldn't believe what just happened. Her parents were the people she was supposed to rely on, and she was already screwing that up. She made a quick stop at her place to take a shower and apply a little make-up to hide the evidence of her sleepless night. Still in shock, her mind was blank and all she could think of was how to put one foot in front of the other, heading to Star Labs. As she didn't want to stay home, she got there early, around seven. When she got to the large white room, Cisco was the only one there. Skittles in one hand and the computer mouse in the other, he was softly swaying on his swivel chair.

"You're early" he said after quickly glancing at Eva, focused on his screen.

" _You're_ early" countered Eva, putting down her purse.

"I had some stuff to finish for today. We still have Captain Clone to catch and no idea who he is."

"Captain Clone?" repeated Eva, raising an eyebrow. Cisco turned to her and cringed.

"You're right. It sucks. I _would_ find something better but Skittles and Dr. Pepper are currently the only things keeping my brain functioning so-" he stopped blabbering, taking a good look at Eva. She looked exhausted. Despite her make-up, he could see large dark circles clouding her turquoise eyes. She wanted to acquaint herself with the lab equipment before Dr. Wells got here so she was trying to put on latex gloves but her shaky hands were not allowing her. She struggled a few seconds before aggressively throwing the gloves back on the table with a grunt of frustration. Cisco got up and came closer to her.

"Hey, everything okay?" he softly asked. Eva sighed and covered her eyes with a hand, already feeling tears seeping through her fingers.

"Mm-hm" she nodded with a weak voice, slightly turning her back to Cisco so he wouldn't see her tears. "I just uh- I didn't get much sleep last night, that's all."

Cisco sighed and without any warning, pulled her into a gentle hug. She was too surprised to react at first, but she eventually locked her arms behind his neck, grateful for the sudden display of affection. God knows she needed it right now.

"Um, thanks?" she laughed through a sob. Cisco broke their hug but kept his hands on her shoulders.

"Whatever you're going through, you don't have to go through it alone. Not anymore. We're a team now, remember?"

She sniffed and nodded with a sad smile.

"Thanks. But I really don't want to talk about it right now."

Cisco squeezed her shoulders one last time with an understanding smile and went to get her a coffee in the break room. They spent the next hour trying to figure out the very few evidence they had in their possession to identify their robber. The security cameras had been busted way before he had entered the bank and they were no eye witness since he was wearing a mask. They were both leaning back in their chair, feet resting on the desk and mouths full of sweets when Eva suddenly sat back up.

"Hold up a minute. Barry did manage to bring back a biological sample from the robber correct? Is it just blood or is there more?"

Cisco frowned.

"I think he managed to get some skin cells from his suit as well, but we went down that road already; Dr. Wells told you we can't extract metahuman DNA for now, so we can't use it to identify them."

"Ah but you see Cisco, my mind is clear of almost every thing I've acknowledged before, meaning I have a whole new view on this matter. And I may have an idea to find our Mr. Multiface." she said slyly.

"Ugh" moaned Cisco. "You're even worse at this name thing than Barry and Caitlin are. And that's saying a lot, trust me."

She stuck her tongue out and ran to the fridge where they kept the samples, this time successfully putting gloves on. She felt a familiar excitement fill her veins as she put her white blouse on.

"So what's the genius idea?" asked Cisco from across the room, popping a lolly in his mouth.

"So far Dr. Wells has tried to map the metahumans' chromosomes from the dense chromatin you can find near the nucleus. But what if I tried to extract the DNA from the mitochondria?"

"Okay I'm not much of a biologist, but I thought the mitochondrion's DNA was pretty much the same for every individual in the same specie?"

"Exactly" smiled Eva, pointing a finger at Cisco. "But in our meta case, chances are it has been modified enough to differentiate it from another human being, but not enough to make it too unstable to extract."

"Wow" breathed out Cisco, rubbing his forehead. "I thought you were supposed to have forgotten all of this? So you would know how to do all that?"

"Hells yeah" smiled Eva, already mixing a bunch of chemicals. She had almost forgotten about her horrible night and felt a lot lighter. She stopped for a second and turned to her new friend.

"Hey Cisco?"

"Hm?" hummed the young man who had gone back to his good old computer –this biology stuff wasn't exactly his thing-.

"Thank you for earlier. But no one can know about it, ok? I don't want them to worry about me or think that my head is somewhere else while I'm here. This is some dangerous and serious stuff that's going on down here and I can't afford to lose you guys' trust."

He put his thumb up with a knowing smile, just as Dr. Wells was wheeling in the room, Caitlin trailing behind.

"Miss Day!" he said from across the lab. "Glad to see you're already at work."

"Mister Ramon," said Cisco under his breath, pouting. "Good to see you as well."

Caitlin who had heard him sent him a scolding look but greeted him nonetheless.

"I think I found a temporary solution to your DNA problem, Doctor." claimed Eva with a smug smile, to which the scientist responded with a proud look. "And it might actually help us solve our robber case." she added.

"Good." said a deep voice behind them. "Cause we got a problem."

Joe had just entered the room, a worried look on his face.

"Turns out the only money and belongings that were missing from yesterday's heist were from Simon Stagg's vault. We have good reasons to believe that his life could be in danger. I went to see him with Eddie but he won't listen to reason, so we better stop that guy before anyone else gets hurt."

"Simon Stagg?" asked Eva. "Why does this name sound familiar?" she was all more the surprised as it was the first time a name actually sounded familiar since she had woken up.

"He's a multimillionaire, CEO of Stagg Enterprise. You've probably heard of him." replied Caitlin.

"No, there's something else." mumbled Eva. The others watched as she turned to the computer and started typing on the keyboard.

"There!" she claimed, proud to have had finally put a memory in good use. She kept reading the article she found online, the others' attention focused on her. "Stagg was conducting research on therapeutic cloning a couple years back. He was making tremendous progress until he was sued by a certain Danton Black for stealing his work before firing him. Apparently, his wife died a few months later from a heart disease. She was the reason why Black started the research in the first place. I say that's enough to piss someone off enough to send them after Stagg."

"If he _was_ experimenting on himself when he was exposed to the dark matter wave released by the particle accelerator explosion..." mused Dr. Wells, taking his glasses off.

"Meet Multiplex" finished Cisco with a satisfied smile.

"You sole that from me" mumbled Eva as the others were giving Cisco pointed looks.

"You said Multiface. Yours sucked." he mumbled back, causing both of them to chuckle.

Joe nodded, looking impressed.

"Good job kid. Are you sure you wanna work here? We've got a couple spots in CCPD you'd fit right in."

Eva laughed.

"I'll stick with what I seem to be doing best for now, thanks for the offer Joe. Speaking of CCPD, you wouldn't happen to have biological samples of Stagg's employees to try and match it with the one we've got? An online article and a theory seem a little thin to go after one guy."

Joe nodded, pointing a finger at her.

"Actually yes, our forensics have access to all the current and former employees' data. Barry could- hold on, where the hell _is_ Barry?"

He had barely finished his sentence when a gust of wind blew in the room, almost knocking over the flasks Eva was handling a few minutes earlier.

"Hey guys" said Barry with a wide smile, trying to put his messy hair back into place. In vain. "What'd I miss?"

Joe sighed, looking like someone was going to get a lecture about tardiness for the millionth time.

"We might have found our robber's name, but you and Eva need to confirm with DNA samples. Could you provide her those when she's done on her part?"

"Actually, I already am." said Eva who was gathering pages that a complex machine was spitting out. "Let me just get my car and I'll meet you at-"

"I got it" said Barry before picking her up and disappearing, this time succeeding in knocking over everything that was still standing on the bench.

"-CCPD" whispered Eva when she found herself on her feet again, in Barry's crime lab, only a few seconds later. She was heavily breathing since the wind had blown so strongly on her face she could barely inhale.

"Don't you dare. Do that. Again." she finally breathed out, stumbling backwards until her hands met Barry's desk, which she firmly grabbed. She suddenly felt an uncomfortable heat on her right shoulder. She looked over only to see tiny red embers slowly turning into flames on her grey sweater.

"Oh my- I'm on FIRE!" she shouted in panic. Barry ran over and quickly helped her take off the piece of clothing, leaving her in her bra. They both started stomping on the sweater to put the fire out. Iris chose this very instant to enter the room.

"Hey Barry, I-" she suddenly stopped as she watched Barry and Eva standing dangerously close to each other, the latter half naked.

"I'm not even going to ask." she breathed out. The two youngsters stared at her in surprise then hastily stepped away from each other.

"This- this isn't what it looks like" stuttered Barry, taking off his hoodie and handing it to Eva, very careful to look her directly in the eye and no lower. _Very smooth, Allen,_ thought Eva.

"It really _isn't_ " she added, zipping the hoodie as high as she could.

"I'm not judging." said Iris putting her hands in the air, clearly amused.

Barry cleared his throat.

"You uh- you needed something?"

"Yeah actually, I needed your help finding a new subject to write on but um... clearly you're a little busy right now." she added with a smug. "Ooh! Why don't you guys join Eddie and I tonight at Jitters? Eva I've been dying to introduce you to him, you guys could chat and Barry can tell me all about his boring sciency stuff. What do you say?"

"Sounds great" quickly replied Eva with an awkward smile, eager to see her friend leave as she was feeling tremendously embarrassed. Iris' stare travelled one last time from Barry to Eva and she left the room with a giggle. Barry and Eva sighed and both sat down on wooden chairs. Eva looked over at Barry only to see him purse his lips, a deadpan look on his face.

"So, you and Iris, huh?" softly asked Eva, ignoring the jealousy that was slowly but surely creeping in her stomach. She barely knew Barry and she had no right to be jealous over the relationship he and Iris had. After all, they knew each other since they were kids.

Barry looked at the beautiful woman sitting in front of him in his hoodie, thinking for a second about how the navy blue of the piece of clothing made her bright blue eyes stand out. He shook his head and sighed, not even trying to defend himself.

"You heard her, she's with Detective McHandsome now. And she seems really happy, so the best I can do for her is back off."

Eva gave him an understanding smile. It was very brave and selfless of him to do so. Feeling bad for her friend, she tried to change the subject.

"By the way, I wasn't kidding earlier. I strictly forbid you to randomly pick me up and go all Mach 3 on me."

"Sorry." said Barry, a sly smile on his face. You could almost see a halo above his head.

"No you're not" replied Eva, narrowing her eyes.

"No I'm not." said Barry, his smile widening. Eva chuckled and shook her head.

"Seriously Allen, are you making it you life mission to try and physically hurt me in every way possible? Cause I must say, after throwing me on the sidewalk and setting me on fire, you are off with a great start."

Barry let out a burst of laugh.

"I really am sorry about that. How about I buy you coffee at Jitters after every shift at Star Labs for the next two weeks to make it up to you?"

"Hmm... throw in a chocolate-chip cookie and we've got a deal. I'm trying to put on some weight."

"Deal." he smiled, shaking her hand. They stared at each other for a few moments until Eva broke their hand shake, trying to erase the stupid smile on her face.

" _Anywho_ , I believe we have a villain to catch. Let's science this stuff out, shall we?"

Barry laughed again and they got to work. It didn't take long for the two of them to match the samples. The DNA Eva had found on Barry's suit was indeed Danton Black's. The two scientists high-fived, proud of their team work.

"Alright" said Eva as she stretched her arms upwards. "Let's bring this back to Star Labs. But this time I'm taking the bus."

She spent the rest of the day at Star Labs, working with Dr. Wells, while Cisco and Caitlin were monitoring every surveillance camera they could hack to find Black. Barry had returned to CCPD to his regular day job. Eva really was really enjoying herself, rediscovering all this knowledge buried inside her head. Even though she often felt Wells' stare on her like a burn on her skin, she couldn't help but start to feel grateful to the man for giving her the opportunity to get part of her memories back. The sun was starting to go down when Barry joined them. They were getting ready go have a drink at Jitters, disappointed to leave once again without having found Danton Black when Joe ran into the room.

"We have sightings of Danton Black heading to Stagg Industries." he said, out of breath. "Barry, you have to stop him."

"Me? You're asking _me_ to go after Black?" asked Barry, surprised. He was going to of course, but he didn't expect Joe to ask him to. It had been difficult for the man who had raised him to let go of the little boy he still saw in him and accept that Barry would put his life in danger to save others.

"Police can't fight this" he answered. "What Black's become? Beyond me. The only person that's not beyond is you. You gotta do this. I get it. So for once in your life, do what I tell you to do. Go stop him."

Barry deeply inhaled and went to put his red suit on. As dozens of Danton Blacks were already terrorising Stagg Industries, Barry zoomed in to get Simon Stagg out of harm's way, just as he was about to get shot by Black.

"I know that Simon Stagg stole you research, but that doesn't give you the right to kill." claimed Barry to the countless clones.

"Good line." mumbled Cisco who, like the others, was listening to the conversation through the comm system. They stood there in an anxious silence as Barry tried to fight the clones, but it was just too much for him to handle. He took a serious beating before managing to escape.

"Remember Barry" said Caitlin through the mic, "find the prime!"

"There's too many of them to fight" he answered, gasping for air.

"Barry, you need to isolate the prime" insisted Wells.

"I can't. It's impossible."

"Nothing's impossible Barry, _you_ taught me that." said Joe, his dark eyes shining with fear and pride. "You can do this."

They heard a commotion, then silence.

"Barry?" asked Eva, concerned. "Barry are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine." he answered with an exhausted chuckle. "I'm fine. It's done."

Just as the team in the lab was smiling in relief, they heard glass breaking.

"Hang on!" yelled Barry, making the others frown in fear again. "Don't!" The speedster watched as Black, who had just thrown himself into the window, forced him to let go of his hand and crashed fifteen stories down.

 **...**

Back at Star Labs, a depressing silence was filling the room as they listened to a news reporter explaining how Black had just lost his life. Joe had left the lab, headed to the crime scene.

"At least Multiplex won't be able to hurt anyone anymore." said Cisco, trying to get the others to smile at the cool name he had found.

"You're really going to stick with that name?" whispered Eva, causing Cisco to shove her shoulder.

"You know," started Barry, looking at Wells, Cisco, Caitlin and Eva in the eye. "I may be the one in the suit doing the running, but when I'm out there helping people, making a difference, you're all out there with me."

They all smiled back at him, feeling proud to be a part of something important.

"Oh hey, I kind of forgot with all that happened today" said Caitlin to Eva, handling a stack of paper, "but your results came back."

Eva felt a punch in her stomach, suddenly really scared of what the results might say. Before she could do anything, Caitlin frowned, looking at the papers.

"Everything looks... normal." she eventually said.

Eva couldn't hold back a sigh of relief. Barry walked over to the girls. "Yeah actually I didn't even think about it this morning, but when I picked you up and ran to CCPD, nothing weird happen. Maybe we were wrong."

Eva glanced at Wells. He was peering at her with that smirk on his face without a word.

"Either way, you're stuck with us now girl!" blustered Cisco, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "And you did a hell of a job today, I say you deserve a proper celebration at Jitters."

"You kids go ahead," said Wells motioning to the exit. "I'll just head back home. I'll see you tomorrow."

Eva was going to follow Cisco and Caitlin who were already leaving, but she noticed Barry stayed behind, staring into nothingness.

"Hey," she called softly, "you coming?"

"I could have saved him." he whispered, a world of regret in his eyes. Eva sighed and came closer to him.

"I don't think he wanted to be saved, Barry. People are like glass, when you break them, you can't put them back together."

They stayed silent for a few moments, thinking about what she just said and how in some way it could apply to both of them. Eva eventually slipped her hand into his and looked up to meet his glance.

"You did everything you could Barry. And you did save many lives tonight, don't forget that. You can't hold yourself responsible for everything wrong in this city, or else this job is going to destroy you."

Barry peered at her, moved by her words. He was surprised at how quickly he had grown fond of the young woman. She had quite the temper, but behind the stubbornness and irony, he could see her soft and generous heart. Maybe she was a little lost right now but he realised he had made it his mission to help her find her way. He squeezed her hand and sighed.

"Thank you." he simply said as his eyes sparkled and she berated herself for thinking about how cute he looked with these sad puppy eyes. "Come on, let's go meet the others or they're going to think we got lost." he added with a laugh. They reluctantly let go of each other's hands and walked up the hallway.

"Besides," Eva said slyly, "I'm going to hold you to your promise. A free latte sounds perfect to finish this day."

"Ugh. I was hoping you'd forgotten about that." he laughed, happy to feel the weight of his guilt a little lighter after their conversation.

 **...**

Meanwhile, Dr. Wells decided to pay Simon Stagg a little visit. After the old scientist explained his interest in the man in the red mask, Wells casually stood up from his chair and stabbed Stagg before the latter had time to recover from his surprise. He left him there to bleed to death, a cold look in his eyes.

"The man in the red mask, the fastest man alive... he must be kept safe." he whispered before exiting the room.

Back in this house, he calmly washed the blood off his hands and poured himself a nice glass of scotch. Satisfied, he sighed and crashed on his couch as he pulled out Eva's test results which he had taken from Caitlin before leaving Star Labs. He perused the papers before stopping, a smile on his face. Caitlin was an excellent scientist, one of the best he knew, but to notice the tiny anomaly in Eva's brain activity, you had to be looking for it. And Wells happened to be. He put the papers down and finished his drink.

"This is going to be interesting."

 **...**

The air was light and spirits were high at Jitters. Eva, Barry, Caitlin and Cisco had joined Eddie and Iris at the end of her shift, eager to forget the awful night they just had. They had put two tables together so that everyone could sit. Eva was sitting between Caitlin and Eddie and she was starting to understand why Barry was jealous of this man. He was smart, funny, kind and man was he handsome. He and Eva were having a passionate conversation about what the best drink in this place was when Barry stood up.

"Refill, anyone?" his question was answered with cheers and Eddie stood up as well.

"I'll give you a hand." Barry had a forced smile and both went to the counter together. Eva leaned towards Iris who was sitting in front of her.

"Oh. My. God. Where did you find him? I want one."

Iris burst out in laughter a leaned over the table as well, sighing.

"Yeah Eddie's great. But he's also my dad's partner, which makes it a little difficult for us."

"You still haven't told him?"

Iris grimaced, twisting her hands.

"I know, the more we wait the worst it's going to be but... he gets so protective sometimes! I'm just scared to screw everything up."

Eva nodded, putting a hand over Iris'.

"It's pretty obvious how much he cares about you. If you dad can see it too, I'm sure he'll be cool with it."

Iris had a hesitant smile. She was grateful for her friend's support but Eva didn't know her dad like she did. She was actually scared for Eddie's well being.

After the boys came back with more caffeine, they spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing and being the loudest in the café. Eva was trying to enjoy the moment as much as she could, knowing that very soon she would have to come back to her dark thoughts and the companionship of that odd entity. But for now, she was just a normal woman, bonding with people she felt could help her find some kind of normal.

* * *

 **A/N:** That's it for this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! Thank you for the favs, follows and reviews, it means a lot! ;) As you can see I used a few scenes from the show, I think I'm going to keep doing that although I may not follow the exact same plot. Tell me what you think!

I'm going to stick to that length for the next chapter, and try to update weekly. Until next time :)


	5. The Fall

**A/N:** This chapter is a little shorter but it needed to be separated. Enjoy :)

* * *

The days went by, becoming weeks, and Eva actually started to think she could get used to this life. She loved her work at Star Labs, helping The Flash and the rest of the team making a difference in this city. However, she couldn't help but think everything in her life was in some kind of fragile equilibrium, as if the slightest blow could make everything fall apart. Her parents, for instance. They had never talked about that morning she came to see them again, although they almost stopped coming to see her. They only kept calling her daily. They would talk about the weather, the news, she would tell them how her work was exciting but exhausting, and hung up. Her relationship with the team and Dr. Wells in particular was in status quo as well. The secretive man had helped her more than anyone else find her old life back, and yet she always had that feeling that he was waiting for something to happen, as if anytime she sneezed, he expected her to spontaneously combust or something. It was putting her on edge.

Her memories were slowly coming back, but it was only bits and pieces. She would walk down the street and remember a nice restaurant she had lunch with Iris once, or she would wake up in the morning suddenly craving for pancakes, remembering that she used to cook those with chocolate chips and banana. But it was never something important, a memory that she held dear or that would change the way she sees things. Dr. Rhodes called her several times, checking on his miraculous patient. He told her to be patient, that it could take years for her to get even a few memories back. It did not make her feel any better.

And then there was _it._ She didn't know how else to call it. It had stopped doing anything, it was now just a shadow following her everywhere she went. Eva even stopped fearing it, thinking it was some kind of odd reminiscence of her coma. Her doctor had said it himself, it is almost impossible to wake up from a sleep that long without some sort of after effect. So she learned to live with it, scrupulously keeping it a secret from everyone else, even her doctor. She was somehow hoping that it would someday go away.

 **...**

"Okay!" said Cisco, leaning back in his chair and clapping his hands. "We've got multiple murders, all committed by the same psycho metahuman that can transform into gas. Deadly gas. The culprit seems to be Kyle Nimbus, executed by gas the night the particle accelerator blew up. Question: any ideas for a cool name?"

They all sighed and sent him an irritated look. They were actually waiting for his rant to go somewhere.

"Thank you for your intervention Mr. Ramon" jeered Wells. "Any actual ideas on how to stop Mr. Nimbus?"

"You shoulda asked." answered Cisco with a sly smile. "I've been working on a cool new toy."

The team watched as the young man brought a portable screen equipped with a camera, attached to a complex machine that was beeping all over the place.

"This little beauty can capture any kind of wavelength there are, allowing us to detect anything or _anyone_ that couldn't be seen with a human eye."

"That's great Cisco," started Barry, frowning, "but I can actually _see_ Nimbus when he's in his gas form. It's a like a greenish smoke."

Cisco lost his proud smile and his arms fell to his side.

"You couldn't have mentioned this six hours and thirty three minutes earlier?" he yelled before sitting back down. "What a waste."

"Sorry" said Barry with an apologetic smile. Wells sighed, removing his glasses.

"Anyone else?"

"He's been targeting his victims, right?" suddenly said Eva. "They are all people who helped put him in a cell. Maybe our best shot would be to find his next victim first, and then wait for him to make his move."

The room fell silent, impressed by Eva's quick thinking. Barry suddenly stood up, a look of terror in his eyes.

"Check the arrest record, who caught him?" he hastily asked Caitlin who immediately started typing on her computer.

"Barry, " said Caitlin with a wobbly voice, "the lead detective..." she didn't finish her sentence. She didn't need too.

"Where's Joe now?" asked Wells as everyone was hurrying to their station.

"I think he's heading to Iron Heights to see my father." answered Barry, a world of fear in eyes blue eyes. The two most important men in his life were in danger and he didn't even know how to stop this gas man.

"Iron Heights?" gasped Eva, standing up. "Oh my God, my dad works there! I have to warn him I-"

Barry put a hand on her shoulder as she was already moving towards the exit.

"I will make sure nothing happens to him either, ok? You're much more helpful here so please, there is not reason to put you in harm's way." he said softly, trying to suppress his own fear in his voice.

She fought every inch of her body urging her to run outside to get her dad, eventually nodded and took a step back. Barry was right, there was absolutely nothing she could do to help him anyway, and she would just be another person for Barry to worry about.

"Then go save our dads." she whispered, her eyes glued to his. He nodded and disappeared, making her long hair float in a gust of wind. She started pacing and biting her thumb nail.

"What's taking him so long?" she asked, unable to calm down.

"He left literally ten seconds ago." answered Cisco. "I know he's fast but he does need some time to assess the situation."

When Barry arrived on the scene, he found Joe convulsing on the ground, Nimbus already gone. He blurred his face so his dad, who was in the room and had been talking with Joe, wouldn't recognise him.

"The antidote," yelled Eva through the mic. She and Caitlin had spent all afternoon reverse-engineering an antidote to the toxin, but they only had time to make one. "Give him the antidote!"

"What if your dad-" started Barry with a wobbly voice, panicked at the sight of Joe gasping for air on the ground.

"He's going to _die_ if you don't give it to him Barry," insisted Eva. She was not going to have Joe's death on her conscience. "Do it!"

Without wasting anymore time, Barry stuck the huge needle in Joe's neck, causing his muscle to relax and stop convulsing. Reassured at the sound of Joe telling him to go after Nimbus, Barry left in a blur.

"I checked to whole building," he breathed out after a couple seconds. "No one else got hurt. Nimbus is on the move, how do I stop him?"

Eva let out a loud sigh and finally sat back in her chair in relief.

"You can't fight him Barry," said Caitlin. "just- keep him coming at you that should sap his strength."

"Gas is the least stable form of matter" added Wells, "this metahuman will not be able to stay in his mist form for long, his particles will need to reform."

"The Mist!" suddenly piped in Cisco, making everyone else jump. "That's it. End of discussion."

They didn't respond, anxiously waiting for Barry to knock out Nimbus and come back. He finally did a few seconds later, an arm resting on the wall to support his weight.

"He's in the pipeline." he breathed out with a thumb up. "We win."

Noticing how Barry was wheezing, Eva walked towards him, a worried look on her face. "Are you ok?" she asked, putting an arm around him to support him. Grateful, he shifted his weight on her as she led him to the med bay.

"I may have... _breathed_ him a little bit." he grimaced.

"Ew." mumbled Cisco, a disgusted look on his face.

Eva repressed a giggle and helped him lay down on the bed.

"With that fast metabolism of yours, you should be fine. Just don't make me spend another four hours making that antidote to save your ass alright?" she added, placing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose. He chuckled, causing him to cough.

"Got it." he wheezed out with a sly smile.

"Thank you for looking out for my dad." she softly said, a hand on his shoulder.

"You saved Joe with that antidote," he replied. "And you didn't hesitate to tell me to give it to him, not even knowing if your dad was ok. That was only fair." They shared a smile.

" _Ahem._ " coughed Cisco, interrupting them. "How is Joe by the way?"

"He should be in the hospital by now." answered Barry, already sitting up. "I should go see him."

"You should be resting." warned Wells.

Ignoring his friends' advice, he gave the mask back to Eva, changed out of his suit and left. They all decided to wait here for him to come back to have news from Joe and make sure Barry was still ok after his encounter with The Mist. Cisco started playing with his not so useful "weird stuff detector" as he liked to call it, while Dr. Wells, Eva and Caitlin were debriefing on their day.

"Hold up a minute." said Eva, who was coming back in the room with coffee for everyone. "Did Barry say earlier that Nimbus was in the _pipeline_?"

"Yes." casually answered Wells. "We transformed the particle accelerator into a prison that could hold any metahuman."

Eva watched them with a half-scared half-disgusted look on her face.

"So... for the past weeks I've been working above a prison housing metahuman psychopaths?"

"Yes." simply answered Wells, taking a sip of his coffee.

"And you didn't think to mention it?!" she added, outraged.

"Where did you think we were putting them?" asked Cisco with a laugh.

"I don't know" she said, scratching her head. "I never really thought about it. Ugh. Talk about a creepy basement."

They were all laughing at her comment when Barry came back.

"Joe is fine. They're going to keep him for the night but your antidote worked. He'll be home by tomorrow." They all cheered at the good news.

"Well," said Wells, "I think we all deserve a good night sleep. I'll see you tomor-"

"What the-" Cisco cut him off, his screen still in his hands.

"What's wrong?" asked Caitlin, who was just as eager to go to bed.

"There are four people in front of me." calmly said Cisco, staring at his screen. "Why is my weird stuff detector is sensing a _fifth_ presence?"

"Weird stuff detector?" repeated Barry, raising an eyebrow, to which Eva answered with a 'don't even bother' look.

"Let me see." said Wells, as Cisco was lowering the screen in front of him. The objects appeared in a grey matter whereas Barry, Eva and Caitlin appeared as bright blue silhouettes. And right behind them, a red blur seemed to be floating, almost disappearing from the top of the screen.

"Well, we're definitely not alone." mused Wells, causing the youngsters to look at each other, worried.

"Hold on" mumbled Cisco with a frown. "Barry, Caitlin, come over here." Docile, they came by Wells and Cisco, leaving Eva alone in front of the camera.

"Take a few steps to your right" ordered Cisco. Eva sighed but did as she was told. Their eyes glued to the screen, they all gasped as the red blur followed her to the right. Then they all raised their gaze to meet Eva's.

"What?" she asked, uncomfortable. "You're freaking me out."

"It's following you." whispered Barry, looking back at her.

"What?!" she asked again, this time throwing paranoid looks around her. "What do you mean? What's following me? Let me see." she said, motioning to the screen. But to her surprise, her friends instinctively took a step back. She stopped, suddenly hating the fear in their eyes.

"You haven't been completely honest with us, Miss Day." calmly said Dr. Wells, wheeling towards her.

She took a deep breath but didn't answer him. She felt like an wild animal trapped in front of a car headlight.

"You told us you hadn't been experiencing anything unusual." he insisted, reducing the space between the two of them. Desperate, she looked over at her friends, but they seemed too in shock to defend her.

"I- I wasn't-" she stuttered, sensing this thing in her mind getting agitated.

"Now is the time to tell the truth." threatened Wells, who was now right in front of her.

"Dr. Wells..." started Barry, not enjoying the pure fear he saw in the young woman's eyes.

"Have you been spying on us? Working with someone else?" he continued, ignoring Barry. Eva felt a warm and powerful energy leave her body as every object in the room that wasn't attached to the ground started levitating. Her eyes widened but the surprise left her speechless.

"Dr. Wells!" called Cisco, his eyes going back and forth between the flying objects and his screen.

"What?" finally answered the scientist, irritated. He turned to Cisco only to have his vision blocked by a chair lightly floating in front of him. The five of them spent a few seconds in awe with an 'o'-shaped mouth. Suddenly, Dr. Wells grabbed his throat, gasping for air. Struggling against an invisible enemy, he fell off his chair.

"It's on him!" yelled Cisco as the rest of them ran to Wells, unable to help him. "Eva, you have to stop it!"

"I'm not doing anything!" answered Eva as she stumbled back, horrified. But she felt the rage inside her, something she felt as if it was her own but she couldn't control it. The man's face was turning bright red and his attempts to break free from the choke were weaker and weaker.

"Stop!" cried Eva, desperate. "Please, just stop!"

The entity finally released Wells who immediately started gasping for air, as the dozens of objects that were levitating loudly fell on the ground.

"I'm- I'm sorry." breathed out Eva before running to exit, avoiding the numerous obstacles on the ground. She heard her friends calling her but she shut them out, hoping that they wouldn't come after her.

 **...**

It was pitch black outside and the heavy rain hit her face like hundreds of needles as she kept running in the streets. Her heart was beating erratically. She wasn't sure if she was trying to outrun her team, that _thing_ , or herself. After what felt like hours of running, she finally came to a stop in front of a library, panting, hands resting on her knees.

She climbed the fire escape to reach the very top of the building. _I have to know_. Slowly climbing the edge, she took a shaky breath and looked down. It was at least a forty feet drop down a small dark alley. She raised her face to the sky to let the rain wash her tears away. Before she could change her mind, she spread her arms like wings and slowly let gravity pull her down. For a second, as the fresh air ran on her skin and through her hair, she never felt so free. A smile slowly stretched her lips. Then reality came running back, and the concrete floor was flying towards her too fast for her to be scared. As she was a millisecond away from hitting the ground she simply stopped, so abruptly that it took her breath away. Her nose was almost touching the concrete. Then the entity let go and she tumbled to the ground. She rolled on her back and stayed lying there for a few second, heavily breathing and her heart torn apart. She was almost disappointed to still be alive. She struggled to get back on her feet.

"What do you want?" she screamed to the sky as the entity was shyly trying to get inside her brain again. "Why won't you let me die? What _are_ you?"

" _Devin._ " It was a clear sound that rang it her mind like a bell, over and over again. " _Devin._ " Exhausted and confused, Thea fell to her knees and let her tears silently mingle with the rain. She didn't even raise her eyes when she heard Barry zoom in the dark street.

"Eva?" he called out, speaking up to cover the sound of the rain pounding on the concrete. As she didn't answer, he slowly came closer, his jeans and sweater already drenched. He kneeled down next the young woman to hear what she was saying.

"His name is Devin." she kept whispering between two sobs, slowly rocking back and forth. Heartbroken at the sight of the completely lost blonde woman, Barry didn't say anything and pulled her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her. The last thing he heard her murmur sent a violent chill down his spine.

"He should have let me die."

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you to the new followers, it means a lot that other people are enjoying this story, hopefully as much as I am :) until next time!


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